Eric Pickles and the mysterious government pub he closed twice

Government waste is a troublesome enemy. You think you’ve got rid of it but it comes back.

Communities Secretary Eric Pickles had a fine bit of red meat to throw to his Tory audience last weekend: the axing of the subsidised bar in his department.

And lo - the Eland Darts Club was to be scrapped! He told his assembled Conservative colleagues: “It’s a dinosaur. It’s a reminder of another age. So I’ve called time…The public don’t want to see politicians guzzle cheap drink at their expense. The House of Commons and its Labour MPs should take note.”

All very good news. However, it gets a bit odder when going back just one year.

The Mail on Sunday featured a nicely well-informed titbit in July 2012 from its DCLG spies about the scourge of waste Eric Pickles getting rid of a departmental bar.

Their columnist wrote: “Eric Pickles has called time on the in-house bar used by his staff to drink away the stresses of Whitehall life.

“The Communities and Local Government department [DCLG] boozer thronged with activity in the Labour years, but now it has served its last G&T. Pickles told officials: ‘If you want a drink, go to the pub’.”